By Paul Turner


A spreader refers to a farm equipment used commonly to spread lime on a piece of land. Besides spreading lime, the device may also be used to spread other substances such as seed, sand, fertilizer, or ice melt among others. A lime spreader usually acts as an alternative to drop spreader in that, instead of dropping its contents, it spreads them over a piece of land. Other names that may be used to refer to the equipment are broadcast or centrifugal fertilizer spreader.

There is a lot of variance in different aspects of these devices. Sizes vary a lot. There are small units which can be carried in hand when working, which others are very large that they need a tractor to tow them. Those that are towed are used for commercial purposes. They can spread material on large pieces of land within a short time. Hand-held versions work best on small pieces of land like lawns and private gardens.

Hand-held devices incorporate a hopper that can contain up to several liters of lime. They operate via hand cranking. Another slightly larger version is the push unit. Push units have spinning disks that are powered by gearing to the wheels. The largest units are commercial spreaders, which are designed to fit on utility farm tractors. These models get mounted to a three point hitch of a tractor and get powered by its power take-off shaft.

Spreaders, regardless of the size, work in almost the same way. The device contains a material hopper that is positioned over a horizontal spinning disk. The disk contains between 3 to 4 fins attached to it. The fins throw the lime that is dropped onto it from the hopper out and away from the equipment. This mechanism is more common in smaller brands of the machine.

Mid-sized commercial spreaders have an alternative mechanism through which they work. This alternative method is called a pendulum spreading mechanism. Developers prefer the use of pendulum spreading mechanism in commercial devices because it has a higher level of consistency in how it spreads lime. The direction in which material is spread can be regulated using directional fins. The user can alter the direction using controls available to them.

A power source is necessary to spin the disks. Hand cranks are used in hand-held models to spin gears. Tow-behind brands have shafts which rotate gears. Shafts are rotated by the wheels of the equipment. Gears then rotate the gears which spray contents of the hopper.

In tractor-mounted models, the driver operates the spinning of disk because of a mechanical power take-off shaft that is linked to the tractor. In some cases, a 12-volt motor may be incorporated in the spreader. The motor spins the disk, which disperses the contents of the hopper. More modern working mechanisms are being incorporated in modern models to improve efficiency.

The hopper is for holding material and it is made from various materials. Among the most commonly used materials are plastic, stainless steel, and painted steel. The strength of stainless steel makes it preferable for use on hoppers on commercial models. Besides strength, stainless steel is also resistant to corrosion from granular fertilizer.




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